PokerStars playing hardball with tracking site

Industry News

The world's biggest poker site is getting ready for a lawsuit against tracking company, PokerTableRatings.

To say that PokerStars are happy about tracking site, PokerTableRatings is very far from the truth. They're thoroughly displeased with all the stats provided by the tracking co on who is winning what, when and how on its tables.

So what's a company to do about someone doing them over? You send out a "Cease and Desist" letter - and that's just what PokerStars sent to PokerTableRatings. They point at a breach of their intellectual property law and a violation of their terms of service.

The director of PokerStars Home Games, Lee Jones recently spoke to TwoPlusTwo:

"We've gone to considerable effort to track down the companies and individuals associated with PTR. Ultimately, we sent "Cease and Desist" letters to the people and companies behind the site. We have told them that they must immediately cease infringing our intellectual property rights and breaching the terms and conditions of our software. This is not an idle threat; we've assembled a team of lawyers in multiple jurisdictions to follow up," said Mr. Jones

"Obviously some of you are frustrated at how long it's taken us to act, but the people behind PTR have taken considerable steps to hide their activity and shield themselves from action. But we are on their trail now and will keep at it. We'll keep you informed as we make progress," he tells TwoPlusTwo.com

And if you look through the terms of service at PokerStars - their stance against tracking software is well-documented:

"For example, there are people building huge databases with profiles of every player on PokerStars, and they are selling access to these databases. A player with access to such a database can call up detailed information about every one of his opponents without ever playing against those opponents himself. We believe this gives that player an unfair advantage against others at his table."